


an exercise in trust

by wolframvonbielefeld (maknaeline)



Category: Guild Wars 2 (Video Game)
Genre: Caithe is Trying (and Failing), Dragon's Watch Found Family, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Marjory is an Excellent friend, Nonbinary Player Character, Post-HoT spoilers, the trammander is implied
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-17
Updated: 2020-06-17
Packaged: 2021-03-04 00:28:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24764647
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maknaeline/pseuds/wolframvonbielefeld
Summary: Marjory doesn't trust or forgive people very easily. It's in the line of her job.The Commander, she thinks, is the same, after this disaster, and if anyone has a problem with it they're probably the reason why.(Or, a study of Marjory Delaqua post-HoT's last instance.)
Relationships: Marjory Delaqua & Player Character (Guild Wars), Trahearne/Player Character (Guild Wars)
Comments: 9
Kudos: 21





	an exercise in trust

**Author's Note:**

> So did anyone else notice the parallels with Belinda's sword protecting Belinda forever, & Caladbolg, or...

Marjory wonders what the boss is feeling, right about now, standing tensely on the high podium they had defeated Faolain on.

The boss had decided to stay back in that little hollow place, staring head-on at the broken, shattered thing that used to be someone - used to be, while Marjory and the others went on and climbed the elevator to the top. Marjory has to tell herself that, repeatedly, so she does not once more see Belinda, hanging upside down on a tree, her soft hair swaying in the wind, out of its tight, neat bun like it hadn't been in the last eleven years.

When they had fought Faolain, she remembers - he was hanging from a pod the same way, she remembers her senses whiting out because it looked so unnaturally similar - remembers the way the boss had screamed after him - but it's pointless, thinking about it. 

The boss had said to burn the bodies. She knew that he could be already dead. Worse than dead. And yet -

Her face twists as she looks down at her sword, slowly running her hand over the hilt. Her revenge was complete. She had plunged her sword into his heart as the boss swung at him with her own daggers, how she had looked in that moment of victory, her hair and clothes filthy, her grin fierce.

She wasn't smiling when Marjory left. She wasn't crying either - there were no visible signs of sorrow on her face. She only seemed very, very distant. Her hand had been on the blade of that pretty broken greatsword, covered with the blood-sap of the Firstborn, the one that looked liked it had grown like plants do before someone hacked it to pieces, before she had dropped it, silently staring. It was over, then - but no one felt like celebrating anymore. Marjory's hands tightened on the hilt of her own sword, remembering how it played out. Belinda's sword.

Belinda's spirit was with her, regardless of whatever loss she felt.

_When darkness overwhelms you, I'll rend your enemies before they can harm you._

Belinda had kept her promise. With her - even when she wasn't there - she was safe. She would never want for protection again, not with _her_ sword and her friends at her side.

She looks across the little patch of ground at Caithe, who has not moved from her spot of kneeling near the abomination that was her ex-girlfriend. Marjory didn't know what the exact history was with them apart from the boss' clipped storytelling every time she had tried to find Caithe's memories, but it disquieted her. Considering that Faolain had been the Grand Duchess of the Nightmare Court itself, which tortured people to turn them away from the very Dream that protected them, it seemed unlikely that she had been a very pleasant person even before she had been corrupted by Mordremoth.

Especially not when it had made the boss look like _that_ , every time she had accessed her memories a few months ago. When she had looked up at Marjory and said the equivalent of, _I don't know why she's doing this_ , after she had told Marjory about how the friendly centaurs had _attacked_ Caithe and Faolain and Marjory had known she was lying to herself.

The boss probably knew that at the time - and definitely knew now. Caithe _had_ stolen the egg that led them all on a wild goose-chase for months while the Pact went and flew itself into Mordremoth's mouth, and then kept going as it fell to shambles around her. She doubted that anyone but herself was high on Caithe's priority list. _Especially_ when she had called herself and the boss the last hopes of the Sylvari race. Right in front of the dying First of the race itself.

Marjory had been a little distracted, what with the jungle dragon all around them and trying to kill them, but she could only imagine the kind of face the boss had made at the words out of her mouth. Who _said_ that, who asked for trust one last time in the middle of a situation you were partly responsible for -

(She wondered if Caithe would have appointed herself the representative of the Sylvari race, if the boss hadn't been one, instead of attempting to become her shadow.)

Caithe definitely seems to have a problem with how little trust the Commander places in her, but not as much now that she's distracted with the body of her dead ex. Or perhaps that's part of the act she has going on - not that Canach seems to see it or care, despite his utter dislike of all Firstborn Sylvari. She supposes he does feel indebted.

Marjory doesn't trust or forgive people very easily. It's in the line of her job. 

The Commander, she thinks, is the same, after this disaster, and if anyone has a problem with it they're probably the reason why.

The elevator arrives at the top, and Marjory's eyes alight on the boss. She doesn't look like she's been crying - all Sylvari have the kind of ready makeup look that would make any mesmer jealous, unless they were Kasmeer or the Queen herself - but she looks exhausted in a way she had never seen her look, in the last four months of sleepless nights and gliding and hacking their way through Itzel and Chak territory and getting nearly eaten by vinetooths.

Her victory smile is gone. She wonders if it was ever there, or if she imagined it. She wonders how no one else sees it either. Braham and Rytlock are fairly straightforward, and one of them is still grieving, but -

She talks as she does to the rest, but everything feels like empty platitudes. Marjory murmurs her own back, not willing to intrude and the boss gives her a cursory nod and walks away.

That's when she sees it, as the boss walks to Caithe, who is still kneeling by the body of that dragon minion. Canach must have noticed it too, since he's frowning at her now - not with disapproval, as he usually does with everyone, but barely-hidden concern. He meets Marjory's eyes and looks away, but Marjory can't stop staring.

It's that beautiful broken greatsword, wrapped carefully in what looks like pieces of the Commander's own leather coat, the beautifully shimmering hilt peeking out of the fabric on her back, tucked next to her bow.

The boss doesn't even _use_ greatswords, Marjory thinks faintly. One could argue that it was her just reclaiming the history of the Sylvari people, her own people. She's pretty sure it had killed both its wielders by now. Maybe she's going to take it back to the Pale Tree, or whatever even remains of it, now that Mordremoth is gone forever.

But Marjory knows, with that detective instinct she has, that the Commander would have taken that sword if it was the only thing she could have salvaged from this entire godforsaken jungle.

"We're going back to the base camp," the Commander says loudly, from next to Aviator Bladespinner's chopper. She meets her eyes and realizes that there's at least one person the Commander trusts in here, if it's only because she knows - she knows that she can't hide everything from Marjory, not when they'd solved mysteries together. Not after all this time. And maybe, just maybe - that journey into Mordremoth's mind had helped. "Don't leave something behind - I'm not sure we'll be stopping by this place anytime soon."

If Marjory hadn't been wiser, she'd have wondered out loud if the Commander wasn't leaving something important behind, herself. Her hands clutch her sword briefly.

 _Until the day you die, I'll be with you. My love for you is everlasting_.

She hadn't understood the magnitude of those words when Belinda said them - not until seeing it on someone else.

She misses Kasmeer immensely, all of a sudden; her warmth and smiles and their cozy house in Divinity's Reach, far, far away from this hellscape. She'd be retiring there indefinitely when this dragon business was over for good.

"Understood, Commander," she says lightly, as the others nod their assent. She doesn't say anything else as the others get in, not even when the Commander smiles her tired, crooked smile at her. She hopes the others put it down to shock, if they notice at all. She squeezes herself in next to her before Caithe can, and Braham sits his solid butt in front of the Commander completely unknowing of her plans. Good man. A few degrees of separation won't hurt either of them, not when the boss is like this.

"I want ale," Braham says, out of nowhere. "Like, a good stout one, not the wurm piss they age at Kevach's Homestead."

"It wasn't all that bad," the Commander says, like it was a perfectly normal thing that Braham had talked about. "Although fighting all the wurms to get there might have made it more invigorating."

"Wait, you're telling me you actually -" Braham begins, and it almost feels like they're back in her home a year ago, where the dragon threat had felt so far and the end of the war against Scarlet had felt like victory and not quite looming dread, despite Taimi's reality checks. She wonders if they'll be able to do that ever again without the world collapsing in on itself, despite the untold trust that the Commander had managed to put in them for this last battle. Marjory doesn't know if she'll be able to do it again.

She only hoped that they'd all be alive to see it.

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, proper author's note time. Reader, I cried. I'm still recovering from HoT lmao I'm only just progressing through LS3 and EVERYTHING GETS WORSE.
> 
> On top of it all, I've been trying to filter out all the things about the Caithe fiasco that bothered me so much through playing LS2/HoT and coming into LS3, and decided that maybe the Commander - especially a sylmander - would be feeling some choice things that they're not willing to say out loud. The Commander's canon AVOIDANT I DO NOT WISH TO BE PERCEIVED personality is super interesting to me, so I went with it as much as possible.
> 
> And Marjory doesn't intrude into other people's business - except for when she does, and since Commander themselves represses everything even in their heads, she's a good outsider POV of the mess. Caithe the amoral lesbian might be my favorite character to write next to Marjory, tbh.
> 
> Anyway, leave a comment if you liked or hated it lol.


End file.
